Her Converted Mana Cost: At a cost of 1WBR that put's her at a medium level cost. This means she can be aggressive, but will play out better in a midrange shell with some pinpoint hand disruption to “go off” first and keep her protected.

Her Ability: This is the “meat and potatoes” of our deck, and the primary reason for choosing her. She allows us to function like an Elvish Piper, but only for Angels, Demons, and Dragons – so keep those Praetors, Titans, and Primordials at home.Mardu “Dega” Wedge: We’re in White, Black, and Red, otherwise known as the “Dega” or Mardu Wedge. This means we have access to the best tutours, respectable draw, and some of the most premiere removal available, able to answer any and every type of permanent. However, we can't interact much with spells that are on the stack trying to resolve, and we don't get to play ramp spells. Artifact mana will be our "bread and butter" acceleration, and will be important for our other tactics (i.e. Armageddon effects), although there's some contention about the use of artifact mana competing with hand disruption at the same slot. Most would say the hand disruption is far more important than the acceleration, although this is not scientifically proven to be statistically superior. YMMV. However, as this primer is suited to 1v1 games, I will be speaking from the viewpoint of hand disruption > artifact mana.Other Commanders: I remember a time when your only choices to play Mardu was Kaalia, a 7 drop, and a Dragon. I remember playing that Dragon in a rather confused identity crisis about what it actually wanted to do. Nowadays there are a lot more options so let's address some of these choices!

Zurgo Helmsmasher - he's big, he's fast, and he loves to...obliterate you. He's oftentimes a 1 card engine but...what does he really do? Zurgo is typically the poster child for good stuff decks that eschew central themes and instead string together strong card after strong card to overwhelm an opponent. There's nothing wrong with that...but it's not as "interesting" to play. Often you can fit the "partner" commanders (usually Vial Smasher the Fierce/Tymna the Weaver) into this category as well.

Alesha, Who Smiles at Death - My second queen, indeed another deck I have thoroughly explored. Even similar to Kaalia as it can a also make use of Master of Cruelties. But that's where the similarities end. While Alesha uses the graveyard to dig up value creatures for value-over-time, like Imperial Recruiter or Stoneforge Mystic. Alesha is like the poster girl for Reveillark decks. I love both her, and Kaalia, so while I can't really advise you to choose one over the other, your choice depends on if you want a grave deck with small dudes, or a combo deck with all the fiery dragons, angelic guardians, and demonic gatekeepers of Magic history.

Edgar Markov - One of the newest inclusions to our wedge, and far, far different from what we're doing here. (Source: I built this deck too). Edgar's game plan is to gum up the board as much as possible with every cheap vampire you can find because, well, spending 1 mana for two bodies is pretty good. And he doesn't even need to be cast to do this (but when he enters the board, things just got deep)! He's not really related to what we're doing here though, (please, no e-mails or replies about how Vampiric Dragon could just as easily fit either deck based on typeline) and as such, you need to decide if you want to swarm with this, or want to smash with a draconic roar, angelic fury, and demonic scream in the deck building process.

Who am I? I am 3drinks, THEmtg3drinks, that Mardu Guy, lover of all things draconic, and mana denial-y. "Answer me or lose" is my motto and my decks being smash-mouth and in-your-face is testament to that. Some of my favourite decks are XBR, and I pioneered Zurgo BellstrikerKari Zev, Skyship Raider AiR and Drana, Liberator of Malakir Sui Black decks to the Duel-Commander metagame. I wrote this original Primer seven years ago, and in that time, this has become one of my greater joys, I've even heard this Primer referred to as "the bible of Kaalia players", which is a distinction I take a great deal of pride in.

I chose Kaalia because I love my demons and dragons, and I wanted something I could tune to be competitive (circumventing mana costs with big, powerful creatures is a pretty competitive strategy) but not something that would make other players feel hopeless because, let's be honest, the average Commander player is not playing an S-Tier "cEDH" deck and pubstomping precon/modified precon level decks with a scumbaggery Zur deck is only fun once (Source: I used to play a Zur deck, it truly is an awful, awful experience for everyone involved). Kaalia allows me to play hard, and be strong but without crushing the average player's spirit with a wall of countermagic and combos that can only be interacted with on the stack. But also, because I have a very large collection of Angels, Demons, and Dragons in my collection (aka my "Shrine to Mardu") and that just-so-happens to be what Kaalia enjoys the most. What a lucky coincidence...

Now, as would normally be expected of a list one has worked on for seven plus years, I have run a lot of different cards, in and out, always trying new things, and have settled on the current list that I have. I do feel a lot of the cards I am running, like Vindicate or Iona, Shield of Emeria are fairly self-explanatory in their reasoning for inclusion, however, I would like to touch on some cards that I haven’t seen in other Kaalia of the Vast lists, or that other people may not agree upon. So without further ado, some of those cards which I feel may merit more discussion include;

Rakdos the Defiler- Ahh yes, the OG BFF to our Queen. Normally Rakdos looks like a very “high-risk, high-reward” card, and in most scenarios you would be correct. However as our Queen brings him in after the declare attackers step, we get to skip this “Flameblast Syndrome” effect (this term will be explained later in the Primer) and then they still need to sacrifice half their board when he connects. So they lose half their board, and take at least seven to nine damage. This, of course, most likely results in a win for us and a loss for them. Think of it like a one-shot “Annihilate X, where X is half the non-demon permanents that opponent controls...rounded up”.

Master of Cruelties- At first glance this looks like he's merely okay-ish, a five mana 1/4 with first strike and deathtouch seems decent. But he doesn't even fly! Oh wait, he can only attack alone! Why 3drinks, just why would you ever consider this guy in an aggressive deck?

Well it goes like this; Kaalia has the ability to cheat this guy in with her ability and if he isn't blocked, he will set their life total to one on the declare blockers step...which means when combat damage happens, Kaalia's two damage will be enough to finish off said player. So with Master, we have an honest to god one-shot kill "combo". And since Kaalia can come down on t3 with haste with some regularity...yeah, you do the math. This guy is probably not quite so hot in multiplayer though, so I would cut him for Avacyn, Angel of Hope in such a scenario; she's a bit too defensive, but in an a-typical multiplayer game, the mass indestructibility will probably come in handy. Or, at least prove much more useful than Master would be in such an environment.

Baneslayer Angel/Thundermaw Hellkite/Bloodgift Demon- The benefits of these are twofold. Their primary purpose is, at five cmc, they are very castable on their own which is useful if, for whatever reason despite our best efforts, Kaalia isn’t able to get going. However that’s not all as they each have secondary uses. Since this deck will eat up a large chunk of its life total, Baneslayer’s lifelink will help to not outright kill us from doing what we need to do. Bloodgift is a Phyrexian Arena with a relevant typeline (and probably one of our best Kaalia target at this CMC range), while Thundermaw’s purpose is to clear the skies to and allow us to alpha strike unopposed. You can make similar arguments for the other 4-5 drop range of creatures a la; Stormbreath Dragon, Lyra Dawnbringer, Doom Whisperer, Butcher of the Horde and etc. These are important because if you play a deck where your curve starts at seven, you're overly reliant on Kaalia which breeds inefficiency and bad times when people do answer your commander.

Steel Hellkite- What’s not to love about this guy? He doesn’t need a specific colour of mana to play, nor does his Firebreathing care what colour is pumped into it. But his real strength is being a one-sided Engineered Explosives on damage dealt. Yes, you read that right. That’s strong – very strong. This is one of the guys I would consider a “Core” piece, right next to Rakdos the Defiler and Master of Cruelties. As a bonus, he’s even searchable via Enlightened Tutor.

Lord of the Void- Like to steal other's threats? Want to eat into someone's deck? Exile certain key cards maybe sometimes? This guy has literally no downside, and all upside, I can't believe he's a demon tbh. But he is. And Kaalia hasn't ever been happier. This is like the gold standard "good stuff" creature for us.

Thunder Dragon- I have a sweet, sweet Starter 99 copy of this guy with BB perfect fit sleeves to hide the one eye sore to an otherwise great art, but his effect is also pretty good anyway. Fry some tree hugging elves, get some face damage in the skies. You could run Hellkite Tyrant instead, either or would be a meta choice. I find where Hellkite Tyrant would be good, typically those artifact decks have ways to make sure he doesn't connect.

Cataclysm & Fire Covenant - These are my go-to sweepers. For three mana and INSTANT speed, I can conjure up a sweeper killing only what I need and nothing that I don't, making it the ultimate scalpel of efficient killing. For one more mana though, I get the sheer destructive power of one of the best sweepers in the format, capable of leveling entire battlefields - except for ours, of course, since keeping Kaalia is often more than enough to break the alleged symmetry of the card. Sometimes you need a little more than Fire Covenant but not as much oomph as Cataclysm, and that's why I also play Toxic Deluge. As an added benefit,
67% of our sweepers get underneath Gaddock Teeg. I don't get what the big deal is about Teeg, he never seems to inhibit my own deck...

Rune-Scarred Demon- It’s a body that gives us an extra Demonic Tutor. While I wouldn’t quite classify him as a “Core” piece, he’s still really, really good, and the closest single card to “Core” without actually being “Core”. And I don’t know about you, but I love to have an extra universal tutor that puts the card directly into my hand, while also not revealing the card.

Defense Grid- As I mentioned previously, Kaalia’s arch-nemesis is U. This keeps them off your back for a bit as they don’t really want to spend 4U on that Mana Leak. It also helps this is tutourable on turn one via your Enlightened Tutor. Grand Abolisher has joined the Grid in keeping people's spells to themselves as well, at least during my turn. Sometimes you just want people to leave your turn alone, and this is a great tool for the job...

Dark Confidant- YOU’RE PLAYING WHAT?! Why would anyone play this card in a Kaalia deck?! While on the surface Confidant looks rather painful, in actuality it’s as the old saying goes; The better your deck, the better Confidant becomes.” Indeed this is why we don’t play thirty some-odd Angels, Demons, & Dragons. Because of the speed at which he comes down, we are drawing an extra card as early as turn three.

If Confidant is removed before then (and by all rights, we should never be allowed to untap with him) then great, that’s one less removal that can be aimed at Kaalia. If Confidant isn’t removed, then we just win by virtue of seeing way more cards at a faster rate than our opponent will. He’s also a Human which means we can play him off our Cavern of Souls for added benefit. The other reasoning to playing this card is sort of sneakier, however. It’s well known that a lot of players will misevaluate this card’s power level. Indeed, they will see this and expect us to flip Ionas and Rune-Scarreds all day long, but they’re only fooling themselves. That’s fine – I will gladly accept a win because of my opponent’s misguided threat assessment.

Sire of Insanity- This guy is like a Mind Twist who bashes for six on his own; and also a respectable early-game Kaalia target. While it looks very symmetrical, take a look at his rules text again "At the beginning of each end step, each player discards his or her hand.". This actually works exceedingly well in our favour. Who cares if we don't have a hand when no one else does and we have eight plus power on the board (and a commander who is quite capable of applying more power quickly and easily). Additionally, cheat this out on t3 on the play, for example. Now, your opponent needs to top deck each removal spell, land drop, threat, and ramp spell, each turn. But they only draw one card a turn at this point. the other important bit about this guy, and this is my personal favourite reason; nobody can sandbag answers anymore. Everyone draws, plays everything they can, and then discards the rest. Pretty sweet, if you ask me.

Teferi's Protection- It's the ultimate in protection, covering you, your board, uhh...everything, really. Can combo with Ravages of War for the low, low cost of 5WW. I mean, okay, I wouldn't play it just to phase out my lands in response to a 'Geddon. But like...it could happen. And it's a good protective spell in and of itself.

Earnest Fellowship- The key Enchantment. It’s like, a Mother of Runes that doesn’t need to target and is protecting multiple creatures at the same time. Indeed having a Kaalia with protection from 60% of the color pie is scary. But it’s not without its own quirks. In order to minimize the symmetrical nature of this card, you need to switch out all of your multicolored removal because such spells have twice as much of a chance to get blocked by this Enchantment. For this list, the only multicolored creature removal is the sorcery-speed Vindicate, because hitting any kind of card is pretty good.

Necropotence- Ah. The iconic bread-and-butter B card. I don’t feel this needs justification, but I will add a disclaimer. If you don’t have the best of the best mana, then do yourself a favor and don’t stress your manabase for this; Stick with Phyrexian Arena instead.

Moat- A very, very pricey card that is very, very hard to acquire. But if you can, you will see how this absolutely shuts down a myriad of decks. If you don’t have one of these and/or can’t afford to spring for this, then consider Stranglehold in its place.

Cavern of Souls- Since we want to make sure our Kaalia resolves, every game, this Land is of the utmost importance. In 98% of games, you will name Human (which also helps to make our Confidant and Abolisher uncounterable too), but occasionally you might have the game where you draw this late and you use it to force through some big scary Dragon. This Land is absolutely what I would consider a “Core” piece.

Hall of the Bandit Lord- This our second most-important Land, right behind Cavern of Souls. This makes sure, when we play Kaalia (or any other threat), that threat will get to attack. Summoning Sickness is Kaalia’s second Achilles Heel (the first being XU), so having access to Haste, on a Land, is well worth the three life it costs us to use. Just like Cavern, this Land is also what I would consider a “Core” piece.

I’m not going to touch on every piece of removal, as I feel they are self-explanatory. But I will touch on some whose value is not immediately visible.

The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale- Turns out when you have a commander that puts large creatures on the board, you don't need a large board presence to be a threat. This means we can use Tabernacle to keep pesky heavy creature decks moving at the speed of slow while we're barely inhibited by an upkeep of 1 - 2. This card does require a mild degree of deckbuilding alteration though, such as fewer dorks on board such as Grand Abolisher or Mother of Runes, you can replace them with say...Glory or Defense Grid. See how that works? Or, assuming you're like most [sane] players that can't/refuse to afford the $1.5k Tabernacle, you can just as easily invert these changes to the pre-Tabernacle state.

Shadowborn Demon- Relevant body. Relevant type. Easy to cast. And an almost uninhibited removal. Pretty handy to have, I think.

Council’s Judgment- This card. Like holy crap, what was R&D smoking to print this?! You pay three mana and get to exile something an opponent controls, and it bypasses Shroud and Hexproof because it doesn’t target. You will either name one thing, and your opponent will name the same thing, or your opponent will name something else and thus loose two cards. Is 1WW worth “Exile target nonland permanent.” Or “Exile two target nonland permanents.”? I'd only play this in single player though as you can't fully control will of the council in multiplayer.

Unexpectedly Absent- It’s like, someone made an Oblation that doesn’t give the recipient of it a Divination. You can spend WW in response to a fetchland or any sort of shuffle effect to get rid of any nonland permanent. Or you can just buy time by shipping a problematic nonland permanent some number of cards from the top. Alternatively, you can even use it defensively by returning a card of yours you want to keep (such as protecting Kaalia herself from impending doom) to the top of your library, ready to draw again next turn.

Liliana of the Veil- This performs a number of roles for me here. The first, is it allows me to grind out your hand, and the second is an edict effect every other turn. All in the package of a three mana planeswalker. Sometimes, she just goes on to win the game on her own. Her best friend is Ajani Vengeant, and together, they like to take over a game. I only play planeswalkers in single player as they need to be protected, that's hard to do in multiplayer, and even harder to do in a deck like Kaalia that doesn't protect herself well anyway.

Wildfire- So we get to sweep mana sources and creatures smaller than Kaalia's threats? Because that's fair...and oh, hey, Kaalia is even protected from it by our own Earnest Fellowship. Low-key this is my favorite sweeper ever and I'll always try to find some justification to play it anyway but...it's just extra good here.

Rakdos Charm- The ultimate in silver bullet cards. It’s common use is as a Shatter, however I picked it up as I felt I wanted another piece of graveyard hate. But it even has a third (sometimes relevant) function where it can stop the Kiki-Mite or other similar setups involving the creation of an arbitrarily large number of creatures. But here’s the best part about it, you don’t even need an arbitrarily large number of creatures to make it work either – what if an opponent just resolved an Avenger of Zendikar, or an Ezuri, Renegade Leader just vomited it’s hand on the table? You can even use it as burn for the last few points of life. Rakdos Charm is a true hidden gem in every sense of the word.

Pyroblast- I play this with REB too because U saturation is just something to expect in ny given game of commander. And y'know, can I get a show of hands of people that enjoy an overloaded Cyclonic Rift? That's what I thought...

“Flameblast Syndrome” is a term I coined in the creation of this list after the notable Flameblast Dragon. It refers to creatures that have abilities in the format of “Whenever ~ attacks, do [insert really cool action here]”. These creatures should be relegated to low-level picks if at all for Kaalia decks as their ability won’t trigger when our commander puts them onto the board that turn. So they don’t add anything except their combat damage to our gameplan unless we get to untap with them. However, if their effect is powerful enough, they may be worth considering…but that power level must be extremely high. Currently there is only one creature with such a distinction in this list, and it is the only creature we have that has a beneficial form of “Flameblast Syndrome”. He is Rakdos the Defiler, one of the signature combos of the deck.

Kaalia is a combo deck disguised as an aggro deck, which is a common misconception about the deck that many people make. Our goal is to create a gamestate where we can attack safely and unopposed, repeatedly, with our 2/2 flyer. If we can do that, we will win (or rather, we're one tutour away from a win). As such, anything that doesn't help us to create such a gamestate is unnecessary to our gameplan. Often once we get to four mana, we don't need lands because...well, this is a commander who does her best impersonation of an Elvish Piper, this puts the deck in the best position to benefit from

Armageddon effects, and other similar Mass Land Destruction effects. This will not net you many friends, but you weren’t gonna get any friends from bringing Kaalia anyway most likely, so you might as well rub some salt in their wounds while you’re at it. Kaalia in her nature, is not a reactive general, but a proactive one (what draws me to this). If you’re playing this deck, you are the aggressor, not your opponent. You need to get yourself in the driver’s seat and maintain the pace of the game. Don’t let an opponent dictate your pace, you dictate the pace your opponent can respond at!

Sometimes despite your best efforts, the intended plan just isn't working. Kaalia keeps getting removed, and paying 7WBR for her just doesn't make a lot of sense, and you don't want to add Command Beacon to your deck because too many colourless lands of dubious value are not good for any three colour, non-G deck. Are you really just gonna hardcast one large threat at a time and pray not to get one-for-one'd into oblivion? I guess you could...but what if I could enlighten you onto the merits of a semi-complicated scheme that could solve your problems?! (There's an American Dad joke here about Christianity, but I'm not going to make it :P). Interested? Well then read on;

Goal: To give Kaalia a more controlled game plan than the a-typical “usual” strategy players employ with the deck. We will be using Dragonstorm to achieve a win outside of the combat step. This means we’re playing the Storm archetype, which plays a lot of small spells (often “rituals” to gain net mana and build spell count) to have played enough spells before our big nine mana sorcery namesake can be lethal. Our secondary plan is to act as a typical Kaalia deck, just with more dragons than anything else. I mean, we’re still rocking an Elvish Piper in the command zone, right? Handy to keep in mind!

Concerns: But how? Dragonstorm is not Tendrils of Agony, Grapeshot, or even Ignite Memories. We can’t soft-lock opponents out with Temporal Fissure. So how does summoning a bunch of angry red flyers that typically don’t have haste, end the game without the combat step? Moreover, how do you cast a nine mana sorcery after casting a bunch of spells prior to it?

Resolutions: Of course there has to be a plan, right? Otherwise I’d be pretty not smart to delve into a deck built around this spell. Modern Dragonstorm has been at least a fringe playable deck (prior to the Seething Song ban), although that deck utilized multiples of Bogardan Hellkite for it’s grand finale which obviously we can’t do in this format. Not to fear though, as it turns out there’s a specific chain sequence that can also end the game Outta Nowhere™ for us as well, and that sequence can also be enhanced by a number of cards.

First copy to resolve nets you Lathliss, Dragon Queen every time. Next gets Scourge of Valkas which creates two triggers simultaneously (one from Scourge, one from Lathlis). Since you control both triggers, you put them on the stack as you choose. In this case we put Scourge on the stack first (the bottom), and Lathlis over it so it resolves first. This makes a 5/5 dragon and triggers Scourge (3 damage), then we let the other resolve for 3 damage. We've now dealt six damage off the second Dragonstorm copy. Throughout the chain you can even add protection such as Thunderbreak Regent and Scalelord Reckoner and even have a recourse if someone tries to take out a key piece mid chain (Bladewing the Risen). On the final copy of Dragonstorm to resolve, you'd get Dragonlord Kolaghan for the mass haste to combat kill everyone (and get more triggers mid-combat because you obviously grabbed Utvara Hellkite...right?)

If you had multiple opponents or this somehow wasn't enough, you can even amplify the clock with Dragon Tempest (replicating the Scourge effect) and Panharmonicon, which doubles the count on each of The Scourge Effect pieces, plus Lathliss' triggers herself.

Additionally, this next combat will buy you a lot more triggers of the “Scourge Effect” from Utvara Hellkite, making it especially hard at this point for the combo to not win.

Mechanics: So we have a goal, we have an end game, how do we get from point A to point B? That’s a great question, one that as it turns out, has four different paths of resolution.

1) As it turns out, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. There’s actually a combo built into the deck that can generate an arbitrarily high storm count and end with RRRRRRRRRR - “coincidentally” 1 more than we need for our signature sorcery. Start with Helm of Awakening, and Pyromancer’s Goggles. Cast Seething Song with the eyewear, then let the copy resolve and hold priority. Cast Reiterate with buyback using the first RRRRR a number of times until you have the storm count you desire. Then let the original Song resolve, and let the big sorcery rip.

2) Mindmoil; This card is a “one-card combo” as long as you have a hand as you can keep casting a cheap spell (or a 0 drop like a Mox) to keep hand cycling through your deck building both storm count and digging for the combo. This shores up one of Storm’s few weaknesses of “bricking out” before it has achieved the critical mass of spells cast/mana accrued, however this does not help you find the mana needed to get your grand finale onto the stack. Mindmoil is great because without U, we don’t have the critical mass of Frantic Search esque spells to help us get through our deck.

3) Paradox Engine (with mana rocks); We know how efficient the Engine is at generating extra mana between spells, and this is likely one of the easiest ways to build mana for a nine mana sorcery, but it’s not without a few glaring flaws. At 5, it can be hard play this and a spell to “go off” with it in the same turn. This can be alleviated by using Kuldotha Forgemaster (Forgemaster also finds your Panharmonicon, so it’s worth having in the deck) to cheat it on the battlefield, but the other key sticking point against it is, this does not guarantee having spells to chain into it to build the storm count that the first two methods can build. Still it’s worth noting as it is by far the easiest way to generate surplus mana, which is always going to be in-demand when your entire game plan revolves around casting a nine mana spell that isn’t G. Note that with this method if you wind up drawing dragons mid-chain you will need a way to get them back in the deck somehow as Dragonstorm does not search your hand for the draconic menaces of the sky! sI’ve found the easiest method for this is to activate Lion’s Eye Diamond with Dragonstorm on the stack, followed by a Feldon’s Cane activation to ensure you get all of the targets to go off. Nothing worse than actually pulling this off and then fizzling out!

4) Mizzix’s Mastery; Lastly, we can just cheat it onto the stack somehow. As Storm goes, we only need to be able to “cast” the spell to trigger the storm ability. This means while we can’t “Fork” it to get there and count storm, we could still cast it via alternative means. There aren’t really a lot of ways to cast it that cost less than 8R though, and even fewer that aren’t U, but there’s something tricky yet satisfying about being the Kaalia player and cheaty-facing our signature spell with Entomb then Mizzix’s Mastery to call ALL the dragons to your aid, for the low, low cost, of just 3BR! Worth noting your Lion’s Eye Diamond works with this path as well (Vampiric Tutor for Mizzix’s Mastery, crack LED to pitch Dragonstorm, draw your Mastery, and then go off! Don’t forget to respond to the signature spell with Feldon’s Cane if you lost any key dragons you might need.

Streamlined, no reliance on mana myr, added a little more support for Kuldotha Forgemaster, overall making this a little more consistent to it's own strats (and I no longer am using LED), I think. Just like before, this deck plays very light on removal opting either for removal that works in the chain/combo (i.e. Mordant Dragon/Bogardan Hellkite), protection for our combo/key pieces, or my favorite, flat out player removal. This means that in a longer game, you are not favoured in the least. So it's to your advantage to win quicker than later. This is my resolution since the late game isn't really Kaalia's forte anyway so making a bad phase of the game a little worse in order to raise consistency sooner was an acceptable trade-off to me.

So, Liliana's Contract was introduced some time ago. it looks intriguing, no? Most alt-win cards are blanks until you're ready to win, but this at it's absolute floor is still a Tidings (sorcery speed draw four, at five mana). Realistically, we could play this in any deck as just a deep dig and be fine. But hey what's this? This card cares about demons? Hey, that's one of our key creature types! Now...how do we go about setting this up?

1) We can just play it to dig deep and keep Kaalia performing her gameplan. This would be the more obvious route, very straightforward.

3) We need to protect it since it has that pesky upkeep trigger. There's a few ways to do this, chiefly Boros Charm comes to mind but Teferi's Protection works too. This isn't really enough to make me feel confident, however luckily enchantment removal that isn't named Aura Shards is pretty uncommon. We can add one more counter measure though in Obzedat's Aid, and this pretty well fills up our slots dedicated to protecting the combo.

4) "Okay, but 3drinks," you ask me with some hesitation, "what if our opponent wises up to this ploy?" To that end, you have two options; the first is to assemble the demon count you need and then swear a Warrior's Oath to cut them off and get to your trigger. The other is to resolve a Patriarch's Bidding (demon) to bring them all back. Note if you're running Abyssal Persecutor, make sure you have a sac outlet (Razaketh or Butcher of the Horde work, or so do upkeep sacrifices a la Demonic Taskmaster provided you stack your triggers properly (Contract's trigger on the stack first, then the sacrifice one over it so that you sacrifice the Persecutor, then Contract checks to see if you meet the condition).

Luckily, unlike the Dragonstorm list, the Contract list looks closer to a standard Kaalia list, just with demons replacing the other creatures. I had ~22 - 23 demons to complement the supporting cast of spells you're most acclimated with seeing.

FWIW, this is not the first white border challenge I've completed, so full disclaimer, I have some experience with what I'm looking for. See here: (3drinks co-builds White Border Chromium!). Now, of course Kaalia herself isn't white border. So we're either making an exception since she isn't in the 99 card stack anyway, or commissioning an alter. Take your pick.

So, if you know me (and if you're reading this, then you do...because Kaalia is what I do), you know white border cards trigger me to no end. So WHY would I ever subject myself to this? The answer, is challenge. Back in the day when corre sets had white borders, creatures sucked and instants ruled the world. We're not really reinventing the wheel here, but this is a different style of Kaalia with the basic threats from 3ED - 9ED and a stronger noncreature mix. Note when I say "basic" in regards to our creature suite, that doesn't mean "bad" (although, yes, some of these cards are far below par especially by today's standards) but rather it means they are more straight forward in their application. There is less reliance on etb effects (lawd, if only Torpor Orb was a WB print...but I digress) and more emphasis on the punch and the ability to maintain your CA while your mediocre beatsticks do their job. Plus, you can put people on tilt as they watch themselves get their butts kicked by a stack of what they believe to be "white border trash". You'll smile as they remark "whoa, that was printed in corre?!" and they'll look on in fear as they realize the consistency you have since all your tutours are still available (less tainted pact/consultation and gamble, which is perfectly serviceable). People got a faster start than you? Never fear, you still have six sweepers main deck including three ways to wipe lands (with mana rock support, of course).

In the end, this challenging project has taught me that this could serve as a stronger "baseline" deck as it will never change (white border production has been discontinued) while offering a showcase of the general effects you want in the deck should you want to improve it. Or, at the very least, this stands as the go to list should you just want to "troll" your opponents with a white border stack.

One last note; this deck features only English printed cards (no SpanishMana Crypt guys, sorry) and no to the "Salvat" deck series, to maintain the integrity of the concept. I also opted not to include P3K cards since their reprints are black border (see Ravages of War), and their otherwise not reprinted cards (such as False Defeat and Zodiac Dragon are prohibitively expensive for what you'd otherwise get. The idea of WB commander is both a challenge with the more straightforward corre set cards, and an exercise in usability based on budget, and P3K fails all of these prerequisites.

Akroma, Angel of Wrath/Akroma, Angel of Fury- A lot of people tend to see these two creatures as the "end-all, be-all" of critters Kaalia should be playing. But to be honest, no, they really aren't. First of all, they cost eight mana so when Kaalia isn't available, they are largely uncastable. On top of that, they only "bash for six damage". They may have a lot of abilities tacked on, but they lack board presence -- they are still just one body after all, and not even with some kind of enters the battlefield effect to make them worth at least a portion of their mana cost. All this said, Redkroma can be an acceptable inclusion, in metagames that are overly saturated with U decks, But for Whitekroma, there isn't any reason why she should ever wind up in a deck, unless she is a "space-filler" until you get...I don't know, anything else really.

Iona, Shield of Emeria - "3drinks you're crazy!" you must be thinking. And if this was 2012, I'd agree with you. But nowadays there are plenty of ways in every single colour to handle this threat, including in colourless which Iona would never stop in the first place. I just find I never ever tutour for this or even have her cross my mind. She doesn't...matter, ultimately, but most people can't wrap their head around this idea because she is seen as so iconic and "must play". Here's the trick - there's no such thing as an auto include card. Once you condition your mind in such a way, it becomes easy to break the habit of seeing cards as must plays.

Avacyn, Angel of Hope - Another one like Iona, Avacyn is just too defensive such that it's at odds with our playstyle philosophy of being the aggressor. Sure, it can make us indestructible but...do we care? Doesn't this just get exiled, solen, bounced? I know what you're thinking, we can stick this and then Ravages of War right? Sure but...if we're in a position to 'Geddon with Kaalia out, we've already won. Avacyn didn't help that. That's win-more. You could make a case for her in multiplayer, I guess, but I've never missed her really.

Angel of Serenity - Of all the targets I could launch out there, why would I throw down the french vanilla 5/5? If I needed removal, I could just Thunder Dragon/Angel of Despair/Shadowborn Demon. Remember we don't have to kill everything, only what 1) Threatens to win the game before we do, or 2) Directly stops us from accomplishing our game plan. Yes, I realize it could be a Morbid Plunder/Bone Harvest for us but it's not like we have a large number of creatures anyway...she's unnecessary.

I understand that a number of players are playing on a budget, or that they don't have an old collection with all the goodies that I have been blessed with, so I have come up with what I would call an "introductory" list using just commons, uncommons, and

Kaalia herself. Obviously there will be some differences in how this plays versus my "fully powered" list (i.e. there will be no continual reanimation of Angel of Despair, or an Armageddon to easily close out a game, or the one-card blowout combo with Kaalia & Rakdos the Defiler). But I leave it at this baseline so those players have something to go with, and then upgrade at their convenience as they have the money or time to do so, but still being afforded the chance to enjoy the fun that Kaalia can bring. Anyway before I ramble on even more, below is the Common/Uncommon list. I hope everyone is able to enjoy it as I do!

Goal: To give Kaalia a more controlled game plan than the a-typical “usual” strategy players employ with the deck. We will be using Dragonstorm to achieve a win outside of the combat step. This means we’re playing the Storm archetype, which plays a lot of small spells (often “rituals” to gain net mana and build spell count) to have played enough spells before our big nine mana sorcery namesake can be lethal. Our secondary plan is to act as a typical Kaalia deck, just with more dragons than anything else. I mean, we’re still rocking an Elvish Piper in the command zone, right? Handy to keep in mind!

Concerns: But how? Dragonstorm is not Tendrils of Agony, Grapeshot, or even Ignite Memories. We can’t soft-lock opponents out with Temporal Fissure.. So how does summoning a bunch of angry red flyers that typically don’t have haste, end the game without the combat step? Moreover, how do you cast a nine mana sorcery after casting a bunch of spells prior to it?

Resolutions: Of course there has to be a plan, right? Otherwise I’d be pretty not smart to delve into a deck built around this spell. Modern Dragonstorm has been at least a fringe playable deck (prior to the Seething Song ban), although that deck utilized multiples of Bogardan Hellkite for it’s grand finale which obviously we can’t do in this format. Not to fear though, as it turns out there’s a specific chain sequence that can also end the game Outta Nowhere™ for us as well, and that sequence can also be enhanced by a number of cards.

Every chain should start with Scourge of Valkas (the “Scourge Effect”) to get the clock on the board, this dragon’s effect will grow exponentially with each resolved Dragonstorm (1 damage off itself, 2 off the next, 3 off the next, which is six damage thus far...you see where I’m going)? That’s a somewhat slow clock in the scope of multiplayer though, so it may be advisable to speed this up. Luckily, we can do exactly that, without really diluting the game plan much if at all. Turns out, Dragon Tempest is actually a “Scourge Effect” as well as a haste enabler we’re going to play anyway. Having only this and our namesake dragon actually cuts the storm count we need to hit in half! But wait there’s more! Panharmonicon reads If an artifact or creature entering the battlefield causes a triggered ability of a permanent you control to trigger, that ability triggers an additional time. Now, as it turns out, our big sorcery does make creatures enter the battlefield, and our enablers do cause abilities to trigger as those like-typed creatures enter the battlefield…

With Panharmonicon in play, combo dragon triggers twice, and tempest triggers twice, and with all three pieces out, each Dragonstorm carries a “Scourge Effect” of FOUR. Now we’re cooking!

Worth noting, you always end the chain with Dragonlord Kolaghan to ensure you have the mass haste to kill anyone left standing from your triggers. Additionally, this next combat will buy you a lot more triggers of the “Scourge Effect” from Utvara Hellkite, making it especially hard at this point for the combo to not win.

Mechanics: So we have a goal, we have an end game, how do we get from point A to point B? That’s a great question, one that as it turns out, has four different paths of resolution.

1) As it turns out, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. There’s actually a combo built into the deck that can generate an arbitrarily high storm count and end with RRRRRRRRRR - “coincidentally” 1 more than we need for our signature sorcery. Start with Helm of Awakening, and Pyromancer’s Goggles. Cast Seething Song with the eyewear, then let the copy resolve and hold priority. Cast Reiterate with buyback using the first RRRRR a number of times until you have the storm count you desire. Then let the original Song resolve, and let the big sorcery rip.

2) Mindmoil; This card is a “one-card combo” as long as you have a hand as you can keep casting a cheap spell (or a 0 drop like a Mox) to keep hand cycling through your deck building both storm count and digging for the combo. This shores up one of Storm’s few weaknesses of “bricking out” before it has achieved the critical mass of spells cast/mana accrued, however this does not help you find the mana needed to get your grand finale onto the stack. Mindmoil is great because without U, we don’t have the critical mass of Frantic Search esque spells to help us get through our deck.

3) Paradox Engine (with mana rocks); We know how efficient the Engine is at generating extra mana between spells, and this is likely one of the easiest ways to build mana for a nine mana sorcery, but it’s not without a few glaring flaws. At 5, it can be hard play this and a spell to “go off” with it in the same turn. This can be alleviated by using Kuldotha Forgemaster (Forgemaster also finds your Panharmonicon, so it’s worth having in the deck) to cheat it on the battlefield, but the other key sticking point against it is, this does not guarantee having spells to chain into it to build the storm count that the first two methods can build. Still it’s worth noting as it is by far the easiest way to generate surplus mana, which is always going to be in-demand when your entire game plan revolves around casting a nine mana spell that isn’t G. Note that with this method if you wind up drawing dragons mid-chain you will need a way to get them back in the deck somehow as Dragonstorm does not search your hand for the draconic menaces of the sky! I’ve found the easiest method for this is to activate Lion’s Eye Diamond with Dragonstorm on the stack, followed by a Feldon’s Cane activation to ensure you get all of the targets to go off. Nothing worse than actually pulling this off and then fizzling out!

4) Mizzix’s Mastery; Lastly, we can just cheat it onto the stack somehow. As Storm goes, we only need to be able to “cast” the spell to trigger the storm ability. This means while we can’t “Fork” it to get there and count storm, we could still cast it via alternative means. There aren’t really a lot of ways to cast it that cost less than 8R though, and even fewer that aren’t U, but there’s something tricky yet satisfying about being the Kaalia player and cheaty-facing our signature spell with Entomb then Mizzix’s Mastery to call ALL the dragons to your aid, for the low, low cost, of just 3BR! Worth noting your Lion’s Eye Diamond works with this path as well (Vampiric Tutor for Mizzix’s Mastery, crack LED to pitch Dragonstorm, draw your Mastery, and then go off! Don’t forget to respond to the signature spell with Feldon’s Cane if you lost any key dragons you might need.

The Deck List

Finally, the moment you’ve been waiting for! Now, this is going to look different than the main list, for a number of reasons, the biggest of which because I’m taking a pure combo approach to this. The top reason for this is, well, I’ve never played storm before so I don’t want to dilute the deck and try to split it’s focus. I’m here to go off and hopefully take everyone with me. To that end, there is not a high amount of removal in this deck, only ways to stall (Moat), but we will generally be relying on others to remove problematic threats, while we remove the problematic players. Also note, yes, this deck is super soft to Torpor Orb and friends (so soft, in fact, that we can’t combo under this effect). Luckily, this is a pretty universally hated effect so it shouldn’t be that hard to let another player handle this so they can get their ETB value too.

The Mana: If you know me and my decks, you know my mana bases are meticulously crafted to squeeze as much value and utility as I could from it. That is not the case here. I wanted colour production and untapped sources, free flowing coloured mana is a premium, if it’s colourless it better produce 2+. To that end. No, there’s no Wasteland or Strip Mine here, nor even Hall of the Bandit Lord and Cavern of Souls. The last thing I want to see happen on our critical turn is to stumble into a tapland or a colourless source instead of the one B or R we need...so, yes, the mana I have here is by design. Perhaps that is a bit too cautious on my part, and maybe that is my inexperience as a pure combo player, but better safe than sorry, right?

I got blown out by a Kaalia deck last night at our weekly EDH tourney because of a turn 3 Kaalia into a turn 4 Balefire Dragon followed by a turn 5 Skithiryx.

Glad to see there's another one running around that might show up and repeat the offense...

Haha! Don't worry, I'll teach that Kaalia a lesson! I've thought about putting Skittles in here, though I kinda worry about not having any other infect support for him.

I will probably start going back to R2L though man, since Samurai has some "groupies" that make sure the three of them make top 4, and the other person who makes it either has to split with them for the lowest prize payout...or they play it out and the groupies gang up on him 3v1 and he still gets the lowest payout.

Well, I was planning on going to R2L Risk, but my friend Kyle swayed me into going to Samurai once more anyway, to try and work together and take down the other guy's crew. Unfortunately there was only five of us, so I got to play Kaalia in a 5 way FFA. Surprisingly, she held up well, and had resilience and staying power the entire game. I always managed to maintain a solid board presence throughout the whole game, even managing to keep people from swinging at me by stacking Karmic Guide with Volrath's Stronghold to recur Yosei(threatening to Sac with Phyrexian Tower to whoever was the threat). I did this several times, eventually stronghold got nuked(expected) but not after several uses. As usual, Volrath's Stronghold is worth it's weight in gold.

Trying to make room for Unburial Rites in here. Any suggestions on things Rites are better than? Part of me thinks maybe Sneak Attack but that is because I don't use it much, but c'mon it's frickin Sneak Attack, the card is busted beyond belief.

To be Honest the deck in it's current form, I wouldn't touch with a 10 foot pole. However that doesn't mean the general doesn't have potential. If you want to make the jump to the next level you'll need a couple things.

You need Discard. Not only will this allow you Kaalia to survive to drop a critter you will be able to prevent your opponents game plan.

Your Curve needs to be dropped Considerable. I'm Intrested in Kaalia because Since she's forced to run midrange creatures, She has a considerable late game. I'm not even sure if you want phyrexian Arena.

Steel Hellkite is the Perfect Creature you want to be dropping with Kaalia.
Out of your creatures these are the ones I like give or take. I'm typing this inbetween class so I haven't done a gatherer search on all the possible choices, But You need to make sure these fatties have a immediate effect on the game and Are actually castable.

Updated once again. been awhile since an update, but I don't get the chance to play as often as I would like, so updates naturally come at a slower rate of pace because I want ample time to playtest different cards.

I think the relative high cost of your cards also means that if Kaalia is killed/ exiled in early turns, it makes it hard to come back as you have to continue to build your mana base whilst they start dropping their threats.

Have you thought of running Stoneforge Mystic considering you are running the Swords? I have also found jitte to be a thorn in the side of the deck, especially if the opponent has counters on it before Kaalia is even on the board. I run stoneforge with SoFI, SoFF and jitte (mainly to stop opponent's jitte).

I think the relative high cost of your cards also means that if Kaalia is killed/ exiled in early turns, it makes it hard to come back as you have to continue to build your mana base whilst they start dropping their threats.

Have you thought of running Stoneforge Mystic considering you are running the Swords? I have also found jitte to be a thorn in the side of the deck, especially if the opponent has counters on it before Kaalia is even on the board. I run stoneforge with SoFI, SoFF and jitte (mainly to stop opponent's jitte).

I don't think these creatures are ball breakers when they hit the field, and it gives you a little space to help lower the CMC of the deck (Hellkite Charger would also work well with SoFF).

Hope you get a few ideas from the post - obv. just an opinion, but again, have found the disruption to be real handy, especially against decks like Edric!

Thanks for the feedback. I'm real big on recursion, hence the whole suite of Valkyrie, Reya, Tariel, and Bladewing. Bladewing has the fewest options, but all if them are just backbreaking. It's like Blood Speaker, he doesn't find much, but everything he finds is backbreaking enough to be worth it. As for Baneslayer she is just a chick I can cast reasonably, and the fact I pay a lot of life in this deck is a nice insurance policy. Seriously, I pay a tonne of life in Arena and other draw effects, Hall especially, and my fetchlands/shocklands, and taking hits from other people. I'm okay with taking those hits though because you just can't race this. It's too much raw power to keep up with.

Blinding Angel is just disruption versus other faster decks. Just something I was trying out because I wanted more than 22 guys. I still feel like I could use a few more though. *shrugs* I feel like this could maybe be replaced by Stoneforge Mystic, perhaps.

I feel like the disruption would take away from my plentiful, yet versatile spot removal, though if I really need it, that's what Identity Crisis is there for. A lot of the removal I would face, I feel that people always do lots of stuff on there turns, so that means they have to answer Kaalia before I untap...so I play all the haste stuff to negate that factor. Urabrask the Hidden makes them want to kill him, or kill Kaalia, and the boots of course are just solid. Hall of the Bandit Lord as well. I just try and race, and muscle my way through, and if you're spending spot removal on Kaalia, I'm cool with that, because that's less removal for my real threats. And between the swords and boots, I have the protection I need to swing with her.

I play this with the intention to cast my guys as well, Kaalia is just another means to the same end. She's great for speed, but you take her out, and you just make me fight fair.

As for Hellkite Charger, I've felt underwhelmed by him, especially as he doesn't trigger off of Kaalia.

Another note about the disruption, I do play this in multiplayer too, where those kinds of Duress effects are...a bit lacklustre, to say the least.

Yeah, unfortunately I don't own a Bitterblossom(I know, ironic, as I have all the dual lands for it >_>) but even still...I don't even really have a way to abuse it. Yeah, they can be sword carriers and the like, but I feel like I want a little bit more. Just spewing out 1/1 flyers just doesn't excite me enough.

I chose Stupor over Hymn to Tourach as I am concerned about colour requirements. Yes, I have all the duals, but I am just making sure I can cast it. Sol Ring also casts Stupor turn 2 as well, but it doesn't help with a Hymn at all.

Tariel, Reckoner of Souls I can understand where you're coming from, honestly, I'm a big fan of recursion. If my opponent's deck is optimal, I'll get something good anyway. I'm okay with getting a Sakura-Tribe Elder though, too. It's all bonus.

also, Made a quick change for a different LGS, I scaled back on the power level a bit by cutting Armageddon and Impending Disaster for Academy Rector(because this guy is totally casual :rolleyes:) and Animate Dead. It's slightly more laid back so I don't want to come off as the douchbag who likes to blow up all the lands. Though they do multiplayer and other formats like Emperor too. In 1v1, in that stuff goes haha.

Another 2 cards that I think are pretty handy are Grand Abolisher and Necropotence. I do find that the deck can run out of gas so Necro is awesome in keeping it full, but probably not so great with the moderate reanimation stuff you're running. Grand Abolisher is another way to protect Kaalia and is also useful as an early dude/ blocker (if need be).

Another 2 cards that I think are pretty handy are Grand Abolisher and Necropotence. I do find that the deck can run out of gas so Necro is awesome in keeping it full, but probably not so great with the moderate reanimation stuff you're running. Grand Abolisher is another way to protect Kaalia and is also useful as an early dude/ blocker (if need be).

Thanks for the comments. I'm on the fence about Abolisher, namely that WW early on, and the fact it's just a bear. Yes, it draws early removal from Kaalia, but I am trying to ramp early to drop early Kaalia anyway. Necro I am just not sold on. I can keep my hand pretty full with Arena, Demon, and the two massive draw spells, and necro does auto-lose to Mindslaver(I have a Captain Sisay deck in my meta that tutors for it).

Strangehold has been surprisingly effective in denying people's fetchlands, and nuking their Demonic Tutors. It's kind of like virtual card advantage.

So far I'm liking Mind Twist over Identity Crisis, though I do kind of miss the graveyard interaction of Crisis a little bit. Though the random discard is usually enough to put you on top deck mode for me to swing in for the blitz.

Thought I'd share with you my Kaalia list I'm running atm. The cards with the asterisks are the ones I'm not 100% convinced on. Suggest away if there are cards you think are worth trying.

I also used to run Admonition Angel which I found to be really effective, but the risk was too high, so I have taken it out.

I also don't have any of the old school dual lands so I'm playing the painlands in their place.

The basis of the deck is to ramp up, make sure the path is clear for Kaalia with hand disruption, then drop and swing. I will only generally ramp out for a super quick Kaalia when my opponent is tapped out and i have greaves or swiftboots in play and know the coast is clear. The ramp also enables me to obv. hard cast dudes when I find that Kaalia is too expensive to play (if killed/ exiled multiple times).

I have never used sneak attack yet so I am not sure about its effectiveness - how have you found it to play?

I do believe that the best play style of Kaalia is control. Sure, its awesome when you can drop Kaalia super quick, but in my experience I have found her to be killed/ exiled immediately more often than not if you don't ensure that she's safe to play (by playing disruption).

Because this looks a lot different from the list in the OP, I feel it warrants it's own post in my thread. I do feel kind of weird for the smaller number of creatures, it makes me feel like I don't have enough threat density, but I'll leave that to the opinions of the MTGS community.

Hmm...I have more creatures than I thought I would wind up with. I wonder if it's still enough? I guess I do have Swords, so they make of them that much stronger, and this functions to hopefully snipe answer cards before you can use them, so I guess it might be okay. Needs testing though, I think.

Updated the OP slightly. Added Moltensteel Dragon over R-Akroma for the overall Hatred effect(albeit at a worse cost over the original), and it's kind of nifty to have a beatstick that's tutorable by Enlightened Tutor ha. Also comes down for four cmc if needed, so I don't need Kaalia in case she is unavailable. Also worth noting is the hilarious interaction with Moltensteel and my True Conviction lol.

edit: Also added a multiplayer board since targeted discard is so cold to multiplayer formats.

So out with inquisition in exchange for more hand disruption in the form of a Planeswalker, and replacing GftT with the(I believe) more versatile Dismember. Lightning Bolt for the Elbrus, the Binding Blade is a funsies thing, looks cool, awesome flavor, and I do run Stoneforge Mystic, so I can try and cheat this thing onto the battlefield.

On the subject of Go for the Throat though, just curious so as to get some discussion through here. Assume you can only run two of the following. Which is better between:

I would always run terminate as being unconditional is great. The other two are very close and I would mostly make the choice based on how much you need 1 cmc removal against generals like edric.

Alright, thanks for the advice. I do agree with that assessment. I guess I'm still thinking of that time I ran into a Phyrexian Crusader which has pro from Terminate and my W exile removal, so I was unfairly weighing the rest of my removal options versus this one particular instance.

Going to give Cataclysm another shot over Austere Command(moving it to the Multiplayer board to replace Cataclysm in such a situation). It's a powerful card, though I've been on and off on it in the past. This does effectively let me run two Geddons though, plus with Ajani Vengeant as a backup, which feels pretty good.

Also considering Boseiju, Who Shelters All over High Market. They're both colourless so I don't lose anything there, and I do have Phyrexian Tower which I do consider a stronger sac outlet, though the second outlet can come in handy. Ultimately I just don't know if I have that "critical mass" of spells I need to force through counter magic.

From the instants and sorceries I have, is it worth it to run Boseiju to protect them, while giving up a sac outlet? I guess Tower of the Magistrate is an option for a cut, though it serves a different role(such as making Swords fall off) so I'm not sure if I want to cut that.

So I made up a little stats box in Excel to practice some of the stuff I'm learning in my Excel class. So now more information such as percentage of card types, a separation of mana curves showing where the majority of it lies, etc, etc. So enjoy! Let me know what you think!